Throughout the duration of his senate campaign, Herschel Walker has claimed that he has deep ties to the state he’s hoping to represent in Washington — Georgia. But it turns out that the 60-year-old may be embellishing his connection to the state.
According to The Daily Beast, Walker has been living in Texas for decades. He has said, however, that he has maintained residence in Atlanta for over a decade.
It turns out that the residency he claims to have isn’t actually his. According to Fulton County tax and property records, Walker’s wife, Julie Blanchard, is the sole owner of the residence. Rental income data also shows that Blanchard collected anywhere between $15,000 to $50,000 from the home.
Walker deemed Blanchard’s Georgia home as his when he first announced his senatorial bid last August.
In addition, last year Blanchard’s company received an unreported $49,997 in COVID relief loans at Walker’s Texas address. The Georgia senate hopeful said that the company had provided rental income for Blanchard, which may indicate the company had an operational stake in the Atlanta residence. Walker’s name is no where to be found on the home’s deed and other documentation.
This information suggests that Walker may have never lived in the Atlanta residence. He certainly did not live at the home before his campaign. It appears as though the residence was only used as a means of passive income.
Walker’s residency has been up for debate well before he announced his run for Georgia senate. He claimed he was Texan through-and-through when Donald Trump paved the way for him to run against Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA) in 2022. He registered to vote in Georgia just days before his campaign announcement.
The tides have turned as of late, and now, Walker has really leaned into sharing his upbringing in Wrightsville — a small town in central Georgia. The public’s also hearing more and more about his stint as a football player at the University of Georgia.
But the damning evidence doesn’t end there. According to CNN, Walker filed for a homestead exemption on his Dallas, Texas, residence in both 2021 and 2022, which caused him to find himself in a tricky situation with tax law in Texas and election law in Georgia.
The exemption afforded Walker a $1,500 tax break. However, it required him to declare his suburban Dallas home as his “principal residence.”
And last year, Georgia election officials investigated Blanchard after they speculated she improperly cast a ballot in the state while claiming to reside in Texas, The Daily Beast reports. She was cleared of those accusations, but ahead of the runoff battle on Dec. 6, suspicious about Walker’s residency in Georgia are raging on.
